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Saturday, October 12, 2013

The Philippine Transit App Challenge Launch!

Ten (10) pre-selected finalists for the country’s first national transport app development competition will present and demonstrate their apps during the hack-at-home event’s awarding ceremony tomorrow, 14 October 2013, at the University of the Philippines campus in Quezon City.

The Philippine Transit App Challenge, launched by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) alongside the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Cebu City Government in early July this year, netted seventeen (17) entries from which the 10 finalists were chosen.

These apps focus on empowering commuters to choose the fastest, cheapest, or most convenient commuting options in Metro Manila based on DOTC’s Philippine Transit Information Service (PTIS) database. Some of them target specific market segments, such as tourists who are exploring the city.

They include apps that allow searching for points-of-interest in the user’s vicinity, a guide for going around and exploring Manila by train, one that allows passengers to give a tip to well-behaving jeepney and other public utility drivers through a text message, apps that provide route suggestions via SMS, and a few that combine the transit data with crowd-sourced traffic information for more intelligent trip-planning.

The competition is in line with the transport agency’s push for open data, which entails releasing government information to the public for better transparency, promoting innovation through the use of information technology, and enhancing the delivery of government services.

“This open data initiative has allowed all these developers to create apps which we hope will make commuting in Metro Manila more convenient for many people,” said DOTC Spokesperson Migs Sagcal.

The Philippine Transit App Challenge Culminating Night will be held at the GT-Toyota Auditorium at the Asia Learning Center in UP Diliman. Registration starts at 4:30pm. It is made possible by the World Bank and AusAid. For more information, please visit the competition’s official website, http://philippine-transit.hackathome.com/.